Germany 2020/2021
German BSRBCC-Presidency Action Plan 2021
BSRBCC - Document Expert Meeting
Identity checks repeatedly pose a particular challenge for police officers when using forged / falsified or fraudulently obtained documents. Recognising the deception about the true identity of a person requires not only a good instinct for the police but also, in particular, extensive specialist knowledge.
The reasons for using false documents may be individual and varied. A better life in the member states of the European Union, persecution or escape from war and expulsion. However, criminals of all kinds, including organised crime and terrorism, also use false documents to remain undetected by the authorities.
Police officers have recently been supported in this field by new mobile and stationary hardware with powerful software. In addition, the document helpdesk is available, and the latest developments and information can be accessed 24/7 via the LIES platform on the intranet. A well-developed national and international network of contact points can also be used to verify people, documents and intelligence.
As part of this year’s German BSRBCC Presidency, from November 22nd to 25th 2021 in Bad Bramstedt, document experts from the member states had the opportunity to exchange experiences at the highest level of professionalism, with the participation of members from FRONTEX’s “Centre of Excellence for Combatting Document Fraud”. at the international BSRBCC document workshop. Experts from the Federal Printing Office, the respective specialist departments in the Federal Police Headquarters and from the joint cooperation centres in Świecko/POL and Padborg/DNK could be won as speakers. by this way, it was possible to find an answer to every question and to present the latest technology on site and try it out by yourself.
An internationally -for all sides- connecting and profitable event under a strict Corona hygiene concept, as this year's conclusion of the BSRBCC projects - this is the summary of the participants and speakers, to whom the organisers would like to say a big thank you!
BSRBCC - Aviation Expert Meeting
As part of the German BSRBCC Presidency in 2021, the Federal Police Air Squadron Fuhlendorf organised another "Aviation Expert Meeting" in continuation of a long-standing tradition after 2013.
From October 25th to 28th 2021, representatives of the flight service organisations of the Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish border guards were guests in Fuhlendorf to intensively exchange views on flight operations and flight tactical topics as part of a workshop. All participants were asked to present the respective status quo of their organisations and, if possible, to report on experiences with new management and operational resources, operational procedures and new tactical approaches in the typical border police task performance.
The currently tense migration situation at the Belarusian-Lithuanian and Belarusian-Polish borders as well as the participation of the Federal Police Air Service in support measures as part of the "FRONTEX Rapid Border Intervention Lithuania" show that the close and trusting cooperation of all member states of the European Union is of great importance.
The lively discussions of all those involved in the workshop showed impressively that the necessary sensitization in this regard has long since taken place in the minds of the participants.
A constructive, professionally valuable exchange of experience took place in a friendly atmosphere, which, in the opinion of all those involved, was not necessarily to be expected and should definitely be repeated regularly.
The representatives of all participating nations took impulses for their work in their home organisations with them.
To loosen up the last day of the seminar, a short excursion was undertaken with a Super Puma helicopter to the "Bad Düben", one of the new Type 86 operational patrol vessels of the Federal Police Department for Maritime Security. As part of a winch demonstration, our guests and those from the Federal Police Directorate in Bad Bramstedt, who also went on an excursion as part of the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum, taking place at the same time, were able to see the professional interaction between the operational resources and forces of the two organisations involved, the Air Service and the Federal Police Department for Maritime Security.
After the successful completion of this measure, the BSRBCC Aviation Expert Meeting came to a worthy end with hearty barbecue food, drinks and music.
From the host's point of view, it is fair to assume that something has grown together as part of this event. An unusually open exchange of ideas and always very friendly contact with each other gave reason for this assumption.
The very positive experiences expressed by all participants at this event give reason to hope for further meaningful seminars in a constructive and friendly atmosphere.
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BSRBCC – presented at first in-person CSO (Council of Senior Officials) meeting since the pandemic held at the CBSS Secretariat (Council of the Baltic Sea States), Stockholm November 23rd, 2021
Mr. Hans-Peter Wagner, Senior Chief Inspector of the Federal Police Directorate Bad Bramstedt, Germany, and Project Manager of the German Presidency 2021 (2020) of the BSRBCC (Baltic Sea Region Border Control Cooperation), briefed the CSO on future plans of the border guard cooperation and made suggestions for potential collaboration with the CBSS.
https://cbss.org/2021/11/26/first-in-person-cso-meeting-since-the-pandemic-held-at-the-secretariat/
Seminar “Annual Threat Assessment 2” from 24th – 25th September 2021
In accordance to the action plan of the German BSRBCC Presidency 2021, the lunch-to- lunch BSRBCC-Seminar “Annual Threat Assessment 2” took place in Hamburg.
In addition to the participants from the member states of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Russia and Germany, the German Presidency won an expert from FRONTEX as a lecturer for the seminar.
As main aim of the seminar, the participants discussed and refined in workshops the draft of the Annual Threat Assessment Report 2021 and the recommendations as a basis for all operational considerations of the BSRBCC.
The presented matrix, a proposal of the new structure of the ATA Report developed by Germany, received good feedback from the participants.
BBC Meeting from 7th to 9th September 2021
As part of this year's German BSRBCC Presidency, the BBC meeting as the first physi-cal meeting under the direction of the Deputy Head of the Federal Police Directorate Bad Bramstedt took place from September 7th to 9th, 2021 in Bad Bramstedt.
Representatives of the member states Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia as well as Frontex took part. Finland, Sweden and Norway had to cancel due to the pandemic.
The new Federal Police liaison officer for the Scandinavian countries was also able to use this opportunity to introduce herself.
Representatives of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) from Sweden and the Task Force - Trafficking of Human Beings (TF - THB) were also welcomed to give an overview of their organisation.
The primary aim of the event was, among other things, the further development of oper-ational cooperation in this cross-border form of cooperation and the presentation of the Russian agenda for the presidential year 2022.
In addition, the international guests were able to convince themselves of the capabilities of the Federal Maritime Police on board of an operational police vessel in the Bay of Lübeck.
Meeting of the BSRBCC Secretariat
As already reported, in 2021 Germany will hold the (annually changing) Presidency of the border police cooperation between the BSRBCC countries bordering the Baltic Sea.
Since face-to-face meetings are unfortunately still not possible due to the pandemic, the first meeting of the BSRBCC Secretariat took place on March 30th and 31st, 2021 in the form of a video tele-conference in the video conference room of the Federal Police Department for Maritime Security in Neustadt / Holstein.
The current BSRBCC Secretariat consists of representatives from Germany and - as can be seen on the screen - the representatives from Denmark and Russia.
In the two-day meeting, a large number of topics were lively discussed, all of which are aimed at further developing the BSRBCC, also in close cooperation with Frontex, as a form of operational border police cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
More detailed information, such as this year's program for the German BSRBCC Presidency, can be found on this BSRBCC website, newly developed by the Federal Police Germany.
BSRBCC / Frontex - Negotiations, once again successfully conducted
For the original German Presidency within the framework of the Baltic Sea Region Border Control Cooperation (BSRBCC) 2020, representatives of the Federal Police Regional Office Bad Bramstedt (BPOLD BBS), flew to Warsaw in December 2019 to negotiate with Frontex the desired needs for support.
Due to the pandemic, a video tele-conference, lasting several hours, was scheduled with Frontex for this year's German BSRBCC Presidency, which took place on February 24th, 2021 in the video tele-conference room of the Federal Police Department for Maritime Security in Neustadt / Holstein. The project management conducted the discussions on the part of the Federal Police Regional Office Bad Bramstedt.
Fourteen individual projects were presented to the representatives of Frontex. These included the Cruise Ship Meeting, Annual Threat Assessment, Operation Baltic Tracking, Operation Baltic Approach, Aviation Experts Meeting, Detection of stolen vehicles and the Document Expert Meeting. These presentations were supplemented by contributions from the sub-project managers who were also present.
The large number of Frontex representatives at the video tele-conference was an expression of great interest and recognition of the renewed commitment on the part of the Federal Police in carrying out the German BSRBCC Presidency in 2021.
As a result, it is to be welcomed that Frontex is confirming its personal, material and financial support for the planned measures for this year as well as the promise of the provision of a surveillance aircraft and access to the Eurosur Fusion Service (provision of satellite images) for the maritime operation "Baltic Tracking".
German BSRBCC Presidency 2020 postponed to 2021
Due to the uncertain further development, discussions were held internally and with the cooperation partners on the continuation of activities in 2020.
As the Corona pandemic is expected to lead to significant travel restrictions in the second half of the year, there is no reliable planning basis for this year.
In consultation with our domestic and foreign partners, it was therefore decided to suspend the presidency in 2020 and to restart it in 2021. Russia and Poland agreed to this plan and are postponing their presidency to 2022 and 2023 respectively.
BSRBCC Presidency 2020 taken over
On December 4th and 5th, the Heads Conference in Helsingborg / Sweden took place under the leadership of Denmark as the final meeting of the year 2019.
The Presidency in the Baltic Sea Region Border Control Cooperation (BSRBCC) is part of the international work of the Federal Police in the Baltic Sea region under the direction of the Federal Police Headquarters.
In close coordination with the Division 4 of the Federal Police Headquarters, the Federal Police Directorate Bad Bramstedt is going to carry out the Presidency of the BSRBCC for the second time in 2020.
Participants of Heads Conference 2019
Assistant Chief Constable Willy Kösling, Chief Superintendent Sebastian Thomas and Senior Chief Inspector Hans-Peter Wagner took part as the German delegation with two goals:
- To evaluate the year 2019 together with the cooperation partners and the previous Presidency holders from Denmark.
- To present the planned projects of the upcoming German Presidency 2020 and to get approval from the plenary.
Both has been successful, the cooperation partners were pleasantly impressed by the German “Action Plan” for 2020 and they agreed in all contents.
BSRBCC-Frontex negotiations successfully conduled
On December 12th and 13th, 2019, negotiations were held in Warsaw regarding the extent of the participation of the European Border Guard and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) in the projects of the German Presidency 2020 as part of the Baltic Sea Region Border Control Cooperation (BSRBCC).
Chief Superintendent Sebastian Thomas and Senior Chief Inspector Hans-Peter Wagner on behalf of the project management 2020 plus the Senior Chief Inspector Martina Krause and
Chief Inspector Stefan Manthey as the responsible officers for the foreseen operations „Baltic Tracking“ and „Baltic Approach“ conducted the talks.
The large number of Frontex representatives in the negotiations was an expression of great interest in the BSRBCC and in particular of the 14 individual projects of the German BSRBCC Presidency 2020.
At the end of the negotiations FRONTEX decided to participate in 12 of the 14 projects in terms of personnel, material and financial support. For example: FRONTEX will provide Multipurpose Aerial Services (MAS) in the maritime sector and access to the Eurosur Fusion Service, as an opportunity to receive satellite images to support the operational measures. The negotiations were rounded off by briefings in the Frontex Operations Centre and in the newly created Frontex Excellence Centre for Document Crime.
1. Cruise Ship Meeting in Hamburg
In the period from 24th to 26th February 2020 a seminar of experts on border control of the ever-increasing cruise shipping traffic took place in Hamburg. Such kind of seminar was carried out for the first time and it was the start of the German Presidency of the BSRBCC (Baltic Sea Region Border Control Cooperation) as well.
The patron of the German BSRBCC presidency 2020, Assistant Chief Constable Willy Kösling, welcomed representatives from all ten countries bordering the Baltic Sea.
The seminar was also enriched by the participation of representatives from Great Britain and Belgium with a view to the cruise routes between Schengen and non-Schengen states. Special thanks were given to the European Border Guard and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), which supported the seminar financially and in terms of content. Although the Schengen Borders Code is binding on all countries bordering the Baltic Sea (except Russia), differences in interpretation and application have been identified.
The discussions were at the same time professional and lively, so that the seminar leaders had to postpone parts of the agenda to the second seminar scheduled for November after the cruise season. In order to clarify the many legal issues, participation of the European Commission (DG Home) will also be sought.
1.ATA Meeting in Bad Bramstedt
In order to prepare for the establishment of a common border police situational picture (ATA) for the whole Baltic Sea region in the form of a risk analysis, the first meeting of the evaluators took place on 10.-12. March 2020 in Bad Bramstedt.
Due to developments in the preparation of the CORONA virus, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Poland canceled participation very shortly.The targeted FRONTEX employee could not be present either. As a result, all staff from this department had to go into quarantine. A video conference with the participation of uninvited participants could not be realized due to the short term. During the meeting, the FRONTEX staff member was connected to the conference room as part of a telephone conference and was able to explain his presentation and then answer questions from the participants.
In order to bring all the Member States' evaluators to a uniform level before the contributions were made, it was planned to exchange the current state of play on the production of the management contributions at the end of April 2020 in a video conference (via the Norwegian videoconference system).
In the course of further project work, the ten nations involved should submit their management contributions until the 21. week in 2020, in accordance with a prefined questionaire.
The risk analysis to be carried out should assess the following risks:
- Illegal Immigration
- Cross-border crime
- Forgery of documents
It was then planned to carry out the evaluations using the Common Integrated Risk Analysis Model (CIRAM). From the BPOLD BBS area, five evaluators should participate, who are responsible for conducting the two seminars for the preparation of the risk analysis for the Baltic Sea Region, together with two trained CIRAM multipliers. This evaluation project should be led by a risk analyst trained at FRONTEX. Other federal police departments were offered to participate in this particular project.
As a result of developments in the framework of the Corona Pandemic, the BSRBCC measures were suspended until the end of 2020 and are expected to continue in the coming year.
The meeting was rounded off by a visit to the Police and Customs Cooperation Center Padborg, including of the Border Analysis Team (GAT)
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